Sonic boom over Mobile area caused by Canadian fighter jet

View full size(Wikipedia Commons/Shipguy)A Royal Canadian Navy CF-18 fighter jet apparently caused a sonic boom heard and felt over Mobile Bay this morning.

A Canadian Armed Forces CF-18 fighter jet flying out of Eglin Air Force Base in Florida apparently caused a sonic boom heard and felt in the Mobile Bay area shortly after 8 a.m. today, a spokesperson for the base said.

"They’re not exactly ours, but they flew out of our runway," said Ashley Wright, public affairs officer at Eglin. The test flight was scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. till 7 p.m. in the airspace over Mobile and Baldwin counties, she said.

Several residents of central and north Baldwin County reported hearing a boom shortly after 8 a.m., county emergency officials said.

"Dispatch got a few calls this morning, and our folks determined that it was most likely a sonic boom," said Paula Tillman, Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman.

Officials with the National Weather Service’s Mobile office said there apparently was no local seismic activity to indicate an earthquake, and the sound was not weather-related, though favorable weather conditions could explain why the sound was fairly widespread.